jbaumgartner's blog

These are the best of times for entertainment content owners and distributors—but they are also very challenging times. There is more content—often great content—than ever before and also vastly more competition due to the rise of streaming services, as well as on-demand options.

The media landscape saw steady change in 2017. High Dynamic Range (HDR) moved to the forefront and consumers took advantage of even more skinny bundle offerings as they continue to look for ways to cut or shave the cord. Artificial intelligence became more accessible and had a big impact on consumer interaction.

The question is, how will the tides turn in the next 365 days? Here are my predictions for 2018:

T-Mobile wants to do to pay-TV what it did to the wireless industry. It is buying Layer3 TV to help. But Layer3’s model is hardly disruptive. So why buy it? The answer is in Layer3’s architecture and the future of the T-Mobile network.

T-Mobile has announced it will acquire Layer3 TV, a four-year-old pay television company.

Comcast has yanked a feature from its Stream app for mobile devices and web browsers that enables subscribers to schedule DVR recordings remotely.

The removal of that feature comes a few days after the International Trade Commission issued a final ruling that Comcast had violated two TiVo patents, and a “limited exclusion order” that prohibits the importation of certain DVR receivers and software components.